b. 1989, Sydney, Australia
Lives and works in Sydney, Australia
Jason Phu is a practicing artist working across a wide range of mediums including printmaking, painting, and performance. His work references folk tales, family history, and funny jokes. Sometimes it includes imagery from comic, cartoons, and Chan paintings.
Phu studied at COFA, Sydney graduating with honours in 2011 and also studied at NSCAD, Nova Scotia. Phu won the prestigious Sir John Sulman Prize in 2015, and the Freedman Foundation Travelling Art Scholarship, also in 2015. He has been a finalist in the Sulman Prize (2023, 2022, 2019, 2018), The Archibald Prize (2023, 2015, 2014), The Wynne Prize (2023), the Ramsay Art Prize and Australia’s premier prize for emerging artists (2017), the NSW Emerging Visual Arts Fellowship (2017), the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship (2016). In 2017, Phu was awarded the West Space commission, presenting the significant solo exhibition My parents met at the fish market. In 2019 he was awarded the inaugural Art Assembly commission for the Sydney Opera House. In 2021 he was the recipient of the ACMI X Mordant Family Moving Image Commission for Young Australian Artists.
Significant group exhibitions include the annual curated exhibition Primavera 2018: Young Australian Artists, at Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; The Dobell Drawing Biennale (2018) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, The Burrangong Affray at the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art; The Way We Eat (2022), at The Art Gallery of New South Wales; and Like a Wheel That Turns: The 2022 Macfarlane Commissions, at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Phu’s work has been informed by several China-based residencies at CAFA, Beijing; DAC Studios, Chongqing; and Organhaus, Chongqing. He has held numerous solo exhibitions in Australia including CHALK HORSE, Sydney; STATION, Melbourne Westspace, Melbourne; CCAS Gorman Arts Centre, Canberra; and ALASKA Projects, Sydney; ACE Open, Adelaide. This year he has been selected as one of the Artists for The National 4 at Carriageworks as well as a major installation/performance for Dark MOFO, Hobart. In 2024, he was awarded Vongue Living Artist of the Year. He is a three-time finalist for the Archibald Prize (2025, 2023, 2014), winner of the Sulman Prize in 2015 and two-time finalist (2023, 2022), as well as a finalist for the Ramsay Prize (2025) and the Wynne Prize (2023).
His work is held in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artbank, and Bathurst Regional Gallery.
